Now I know that this may be coming off as a pick of an overreaction considering all the holes this team currently has dotted all over the field (by both not having long term solutions and the long term solutions looking bad... *Cough*Michael Brantley), but as mentioned in Buff's B-list today, Asdrubal Cabrera isn't exactly lighting the world on fire with his hitting.

Sure, the popular commonsense is that he plays exceptional defense at short. I will agree that he makes some spectacular plays but often he makes mental mistakes on some of the easier ones and that leaves me a bit worried... especially because he isn't hitting.

In 2007 he was called up and was nothing short of a revelation, playing great defense at 2nd and hitting very well for a 21 year old. He struggled in '08 getting sent down once and had to find himself in the minors and then last year he was back to his '07 form... only better. Now this year (albeit in a lost year) he's hitting more like it's '08 than '09.

Again, this is nitpicking but I have now become worried that Asdrubal might not be the cornerstone guy that we thought he was. He's a nice piece surely, but considering this is now his 2nd full year out 3 and 1/2 that he hasn't hit very well... and you can begin to see the problems. This is compounded by the fact that Asdrubal didn't hit PERIOD until he was called up to the major, having hit a combined .248 in AA in '06, and was generally not thought of as more than your John McDonald type guy until '07.

With no viable SS options in the minors (I mean AT ALL), we could be looking at a position that was once thought to be manned by an all-star caliber player who is actually just some guy with a pretty good glove.

Before the A-Rod, Nomar, Jeter generation, most shortstops couldnt hit a lick. As Peeker said, so long as he's surrounded by a decent roster you dont notice his issues. Its when he's the 2nd best player on the team that his hitting becomes such a glaring problem.

ACab's OPS this year among shortstops would place him 17th, but his BA would place him 9th. His K/BB ratio is much higher this year- 2.91 versus 2.02 last year. We'll see if he figures stuff out, but he's definitely a serviceable shortstop as far as batting goes- just this year he's average instead of good.

Put this into perspective: Last year's .799 OPS is the same as Hanley Ramirez's OPS this year, in which he has the second highest OPS among shortstops. In general, the shortstop OPS for the league is down significantly this year- last year, there were 14 shortstops with OPS > .700, and this year there are only 10, and one > .800 (last year there were 5).

Sol Solis wrote:Now I know that this may be coming off as a pick of an overreaction

Yes, you are overreacting. AC just coming off a broken fricken' arm. Give the guy a break. If he's batting .250 going into the end of the season after another 200ab's then that's some cause for concern.

Keep in mind his OBP isn't serviceable. It's .303. That's terrible. Obviously he's coming off an injury so his performance is going to be a bit off. But he hasn't exactly been a model of consistency.

I also understand that there are bigger concerns for the Indians, hence the reason I mentioned that exact same thing. I only brought it up because Buff brought it up in his B-list, which I also mentioned. I think Asdrubal is certainly at least average, but he's not a cornerstone guy. Saying he's "good for the Indians" doesn't mean anything if the team wants to compete.

Bringing up the post would make a bit more sense if the person who went back and found it wouldn't have been basically poo-pooing A-Cab as a player who needs a great team around him so that you can ignore his shortcomings. Certainly not the case right now.

CAVSTRIBEBROWNSin07! wrote:Before the A-Rod, Nomar, Jeter generation, most shortstops couldnt hit a lick. As Peeker said, so long as he's surrounded by a decent roster you dont notice his issues. Its when he's the 2nd best player on the team that his hitting becomes such a glaring problem.

skatingtripods wrote:He's been dinged up this season and really hasn't been able to get into a groove. He's a wizard in the field and he should be a solid .285 hitter. He's beyond adequate. He's an ideal 2 hitter.

Proud of my post in this thread.

A God Damn dead man would understand that if a minor league bus in any city took a real sharp right turn, a Zack McCalister would likely fall out. - Lead Pipe

Tim Kurkidgianinian wrote a nice little article on Asdrubal. Nothing groundbreaking or earth shattering here, but it's nice the dude is getting a little recognition for the phenomenal year he's put together so far.